


As a Matter of Fact

by Fluffifullness



Series: Tumblr MakoHaru Festival [12]
Category: Free!
Genre: Coincidences, M/M, One Shot, Prompt Fic, Team Feels, Team Fluff, Tumblr: makoharufestival
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-11
Updated: 2014-02-11
Packaged: 2018-01-12 01:28:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,839
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1180279
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fluffifullness/pseuds/Fluffifullness
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Makoto and Haruka happen to pick a very <em>suitable</em> time to let the proverbial cat out of the bag to Rei and Nagisa.</p>
            </blockquote>





	As a Matter of Fact

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the "our first" prompt of the [makoharu festival on tumblr](http://makoharufestival.tumblr.com/). [Here](http://makoharufestival.tumblr.com/post/76422072240/challenge-our-first-user-fluffifullness?utm_medium=email&utm_source=html&utm_campaign=submission_published&utm_term=respond_link) is the tumblr post.

Makoto’s chest feels all tight, and he realizes somehow distantly that he keeps wiping the clammy palms of his hands on his pants. A repeated smoothing-down motion that makes it look almost like he’s shrugging, the gentle rise and fall of his shoulders – except that he couldn’t actually be doing that, ‘cause his breathing is fast and uneven and obviously he’s not feeling nearly nonchalant enough to make any casual gestures. He even has a hard time mustering the confidence to smile at Haru when he turns to look at him.

“Shall we?” he asks, voice even but very, very quiet. And a little too high-pitched, maybe.

Haru smiles one of those tiny, private smiles and says, “You should calm down first.”

Makoto takes a deep breath and nods. The locker room feels suddenly huge, the door as good as a million miles away. He can hear Nagisa’s excited voice bouncing off the walls inside, and if he really tries he can even make out Rei’s more level responses.

“You don’t think they’ll mind… do you, Haru?” He chews his bottom lip expectantly, doesn’t quite look Haru in the eyes. In the back of his mind he’s busy trying to come up with reasons to back out now – like that what they stand to gain should really be a little greater than what they’re risking, and how can they know for sure how this might change things, really?

“They’ll understand,” Haru says. “It’s easier than hiding it.”

“Maybe not,” Makoto mumbles. “Haru –”

“We’re a team. Rei and Nagisa are both our friends. Remember?” Haru waits for Makoto to nod before continuing, “Good. Are you okay to go in?”

Makoto smiles nervously. He counts his small blessings; Rin won’t be by until later, so while he’ll definitely hear about it – maybe even from Nagisa – he won’t be there to increase the size of their initial audience. He tries not to think about Gou, who’s probably waiting by the pool for them already, or Ai-kun, who on any normal day could very easily be there with Rin. All he says when Haru gives him a second, slightly more impatient look is, “Sure.”

Haru grabs his hand and offers him a reassuring smile. They enter the locker room together, round a corner and –

Makoto lets out a muffled squeak of surprise.

Rei’s clothes have already been neatly folded and stowed in his locker, which is still hanging wide open. His glasses are sitting there at the top of the stack, and his prescription goggles are around his neck, the rubber band all twisted like he hasn’t been given a chance to fix it yet. Nagisa’s clothes are scattered haphazardly at his feet, left to lie wherever he happened to drop them. Nagisa’s missing his own pair of goggles, but, that aside, they look almost perfectly ready to head out for practice sans Makoto and Haru.

Except that they’re not going anywhere, because Nagisa is pressed so close to Rei that his back is almost touching the wall of lockers, and Rei’s breathing hard but his hands are searching for the best place to return the touch – Nagisa’s shoulders, the back of his head, his waist and his hips and everything in between. He has to bow his head just enough – because Nagisa’s so much smaller – just enough to grant the blonde full access to his lips and they’re kissing, _they’re kissing_ and Makoto feels something like relief mixed with confusion mixed with apology and amusement and embarrassed surprise.

Nagisa opens his eyes first, catches sight of the other two and gets a funny look on his face. Surprise a lot milder than Makoto’s, curiosity and then he smiles almost triumphantly and leans in close again to whisper something in Rei’s ear.

Rei blinks, confused, and murmurs, “What is it?”

Nagisa kisses him again, more briefly this time, and then laughs, “Look.”

Rei lets Nagisa step back a ways before he also turns in the direction the blonde’s pointing.

Then – “Oh!” His face turns bright red and he visibly struggles to find words – his hands scrambling at open air, eyes wide, Nagisa giggling and then finally catching one of those hands to hold it in both of his own. Rei tries to pull away, even manages a sharp “Nagisa-kun!” – but Nagisa doesn’t let go, just smiles and laughs and says nothing to fill the relative silence.

Makoto finally recovers enough to glance over at Haru, whose grip on Makoto’s hand has tightened slightly. He finds Haru’s eyes wide, lips parted – surprised, same as the rest of them. But there’s something else there, too – yeah, Makoto thinks, Haru’s surprise looks a lot like Nagisa’s. Like he’d seen this coming but can’t quite believe it now that it’s come true right in front of him.

Or maybe it’s just the uncanny timing.

“We’re sorry!” Rei blurts suddenly. His hair is still sticking up where Nagisa’s fingers had been, and his face is red red red. “I – I realize that th-this isn’t appropriate behavior for –”

“Aw, Rei-chan, that’s not how you’re supposed to react!” Nagisa complains. “You’re supposed to say ‘This isn’t what it looks like!’ or something like that! Don’t you watch _any_ TV?” He tries to look exasperated; Rei just stares helplessly at him.

“Wh – but – what I meant to say –”

“Rei,” Makoto says gently, taking a hesitant step forward without letting go of Haru’s hand. “Um – it’s okay. Calm down.”

He can practically feel Haru’s silent laughter when he gets to that last part; even he has to admit that it’s pretty ironic coming from someone who still hasn’t entirely recovered from his own moment of near-panic.

“Makoto-senpai…”

Nagisa bounds over to Makoto and Haruka, dragging Rei by the wrist after him. “Come on,” he urges. “It really is okay, Rei-chan! Weren’t you the one who wanted to tell them about us, anyway?”

Rei fixes his gaze on the floor some feet away; it takes him a moment to come up with a response.

“…I would have preferred to do it more formally.”

Haru speaks up for the first time.

“No, this is good,” he says decisively. “It’s simple.”

“Simple?”

Haru nods and raises Makoto’s hand along with his own. His expression barely changes as he leans up and in and kisses Makoto as briefly as Nagisa kissed Rei, once on the lips and then once more on his cheek –

– which is suddenly very, very hot, as Makoto makes a little surprised noise and turns to look bewilderedly at Haru.

“Ooooh,” Nagisa breathes, all but vibrating with excitement. “So that’s how it is.” He sounds _happy_ – but not surprised, not anymore.

Makoto doesn’t let go of Haru’s hand, but he does raise his free one to cover the lower half of his face. He barely manages a passing glance at Nagisa and Rei – because then he’s staring determinedly at the ground, painfully aware of his newfound status as the center of attention. All he really notices is that Rei’s still blushing, but maybe not as much as Makoto, now.

Haru nudges him in the side. “You’re the one who said it was okay,” he reminds him calmly.

“Yeah, but” – Makoto shrinks a little more – “that was too sudden, Haru!”

“It’s like getting a shot,” Haru says. “It’s easier when there’s not a lot of build-up.”

Rei clears his throat. “Isn’t that because they – er, vaccinations, that is – can often be delivered without the patient noticing?” he suggests with a sheepish inclination of his head. “Unless you’re referring to the common tendency to catastrophize when too much emphasis is placed on the moment –”

“Rei-chan, no one understands what you’re talking about,” Nagisa sing-songs. He’s all but climbing up Rei’s arm, face half-buried and grinning. Rei looks a little taken-aback by the interruption, but he lets it pass without any real protest. “Plus, you shouldn’t change the subject like that, Haru-chan!”

“I wasn’t,” Haru says with a muted frown. “I was helping.”

Makoto smiles in spite of himself, but he keeps his hand where it is and hopes that his tone conveys what he’s not letting Haru see clearly. “You might be right, Haru. Thanks for the thought, at least.”

Haru blushes and looks away, stays quiet for a moment before sighing and: “So? Does anyone have anything to say?”

“Did you guys show up late because you were going to tell us you’re dating?” Nagisa says immediately.

“Y-yeah.” Makoto’s almost surprised that he manages to keep his voice sounding relatively normal.

“Why today?”

“It just kind of worked out that way,” Makoto shrugs – for real this time, and he even lowers his hand back to his side. “We’ve been thinking about it for a while, but I kept asking Haru-chan to wait a bit.”

“You didn’t need to worry,” Nagisa says, sounding just a little hurt. “We wouldn’t –”

“Of course not!” Makoto reassures him. “I just – it’s a little embarrassing, and this – it’s the first time we’ve told anyone outside of family. I wasn’t sure how to bring it up, and – and actually, yeah, I guess part of it _was_ that I didn’t know how normal people might react,” he finishes apologetically.

Rei shakes his head. “This may not sound like much coming from me” – he steals a glance at Nagisa, who winks and gives him a squeeze that may be intended as reassuring – “but isn’t it a little hard to define normal like that, anyway? We’re all a little… out of the ordinary, I guess, but it seems unfair to equate that with abnormality.”

Nagisa giggles. “Even though Rei-chan and I don’t exactly have room to judge either way.”

“No, I understand,” Makoto agrees, directing that response at Rei.

“Other people might not see it that way, though,” Haru adds quietly.

They all more or less skip a beat, then, forgetting in the midst of that realization to fill the space with words and smiles. The locker room is briefly a much stiller place, all tense vibration and lowered heads.

Nagisa finally straightens up and looks around at them all with a more reserved smile. “But isn’t that okay? Not everyone’s like that, and besides – we’re not really alone, ‘cause I have Rei-chan, and Mako-chan and Haru-chan have each other. And we’re a team, so we’ll always support each other no matter what!”

Rei returns the smile. “I suppose that’s true.”

Makoto and Haru turn to each other and exchange a look that sums up their agreement almost better than spoken words. Nagisa and Rei see it and understand without needing to ask, and the talk ends there – with first Nagisa and then every one of them laughing, shaking with it because it’s worked out so well for them, they’ve thought so hard and worried so much for this and only this – a few less-than-secret kisses shared on the eve of another swim practice, Gou calling after them and all of them feeling a lot lighter, safer, welcome.

There was never any reason to stress about something as simple as this, was there?


End file.
